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To Yellowstone

I left the campground in Flaming Gorge and I was having a nice ride in the bright sunshine in the morning. In the meantime when I came to a downhill, I saw in the valley below a larger lake than the dam lake near the campground. The lake was shining in blue. I parked the bike and smoke a cigarette as usual. The destination of the day was Rock Spring in the southwest edge of Wyoming. As the travel distance was around 80 km, I would be there at 10:30 at that pace, I took a picture. The sky in the west was dark. The dark cloud was rapidly coming toward me. I had believed the weather moved from the east in that region. The flow of the cloud was fast. I was sure of the heavy shower under the cloud. And, my way ran toward it. I turned the engine on and rode downward to the lake. The bike rushed toward the rain cloud. I wished I would arrive at a gas station in the next town before the cloud hit me. It was becoming dark over the head. There was no rain yet. The town was 15 km away, then 7 or 8 minutes to go. But that cloud would surely bring heavy shower in a second. In this emergency the car ahead was unusually slow. " You won't get wet, but I don't have a roof". I saw a sign "2 km". A raindrop fell on the windshield. I saw a gas station on the corner of the T-shaped junction. Most of the gas stations in the US somehow have a roof and convenience store next to it. I rushed under the roof. While I was filling the gas, it began to rain harder and while I was drinking coffee at the store, it turned into a storm. A couple of riders in rain suites plunged into the gas station on the same model of HONDA Transalp-650. I had made a trip in foreign countries almost every year during the previous 27 years, however, I had never met Hungarians before.

Another upstream lake of Flaming Gorge Dam

Two riders from Hungary I met when sheltering from the heavy shower

Probably Hungary also approved of its people leaving the country for traveling. One of them was surprisingly a woman. They told me they had sent the bikes from Hungary to Toronto, Canada by air for only $600 for the two. The couple would keep traveling for another five months and ride to Guatemala. They were taking the road I had come toward the south. We exchanged the maps of the north and the south. Maybe we would be able to see again in Guatemala. While we were talking for several hours, the sky cleared up. We parted, exchanging our email addresses. That was the second time for me to talk to riders for a month. The first time was also in the rain, when I was sheltering under a overpass. Rain is a natural enemy of motorcycle riders, however, it sometimes brings this kind of happy encounter.I arrived at Rock Spring at around 3:30, while I expected it at 10:30. I had an idea that I would stay there for two nights and send money to Japan by the Internet. As the maximum sum of money to be sent a day was $800, I would have to do it six times, on deferent six days in total. I thought, "I will stay here for two days and first of all send the first $160. There is an access point of AOL in this town and the phone call is free." A plateau extended a hundred and some dozens of kilometers in the north of Rock Spring. It was so flat that I could not believe that place was in the Rocky Mountains. Trees disappeared and a semi-desert lasted again. One road ran straight to the north in a monotonous scenery.As the road came closer to Jackson, a town near the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park, mountains blocked the sight, trees increased the number in the mountains and the road began to wind around the mountains. Steep mountains stood over behind those mountains. In Jackson, which gave me an impression of a typical summer resort, the hotels were expensive. Most motels charged $100. I asked the reason. It was because the town is a tourist resort with neighboring Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone in its north. Jackson is also a ski resort in winter. In the end I paid $55, the highest price during the trip.

In the north of Jackson the steep mountains are soon seen

and on the foot of those mountains the ranches like those often seen in the Western movies are located in places. In fact, the movie "Shane" was filmed here and it is said the house in the movie still remains. I could not find the difference of the house from other real ones and could not identify it though. There were lofty mountains like the Alps in the back of the ranches, and a blue lake reflected the peaks. It was just like the Canadian Rockies that I had seen in the picture. The main peak in the park is Grand Teton, which is the same as the name of the park, and it has an elevation of 4197 m. The mountain is higher than Mt. Fuji. It still had snow near its summit. As both the campgrounds on the foot of the mountain and those further in the north were all booked up, I rode to a campground near Yellowstone in the north. In this campground the black bear and even the grizzly bear often appears and so an iron store box is prepared at each campsite. Campers are required to store not only their food, but utensils and even shampoo in the box day and night. It was no doubt a dangerous place. I was somewhat uneasy on that night, because I had had an experience of having a bear at a campground in Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Nevada seven years before.Forest fire is frequent in this region.

Mt. Grand Teton in Grand Teton National Park

Reportedly, it is mostly caused by lightning strike. Especially last year, on the 15th of August in 2000, lots of forest fire broke out and the trees in the large were lost. In fact all the trees in the mountains, from the campground to Yellowstone, were burnt, only remaining their trunks like countless needles In Yellowstone, however, the road was fringed with dense, tall trees. I felt as if I was riding through the valley of trees. I was enjoying a pleasant riding for a while, but the same mountains with those needles came within my vision. It also lasted long. I rode and rode, but a forest of toothpicks appeared one after another. It lasted 30 km. Yellowstone was founded in 1872, just after the Meiji Restoration in Japan, and is the first national park in the world. It is reported that the park has an area of 100 mi. ( 160 km) times 100 mi. In that huge park the trees were burnt in every place. Old Faithful, the village in the park famous for its geysers, had also a forest fire and seemingly it was put out at the very last moment before it reached the village buildings. Here are lots of geysers. The most famous geyser often shown in the pictures explodes hot water every 70 or 80 minutes. At the gas station I was told it would be in 15 minutes.

Trunks of the burnt trees in Yellowstone National Park

Thinking I was lucky, I walked toward the pointed direction and I saw a great number of tourists were waiting for the greatest moment. And that moment came at last. It exploded an amount of water. I took a picture and tried to take another one, but the fountain shrank and it was finished disappointedly in a short time. I think the geyser I saw in New Zealand is more impressive than that in Yellowstone, maybe because I saw the latter in the distance among a mass of people. Nonetheless, Yellowstone is the best place for motorcycling. There are mountains, lakes, canyons, pastures, meadows. The land is rich in variation. There are also hot springs in the park.

Geyser in Old Faithful, Yellowstone

Hot spring waterfall in Yellowstone. Spring water falls from here.

I did not find the same hot spring where we soak and hum a song in Japan, however, the place where clear, hot spring water falls down on the slope of a terrace field made by its sinter can be rarely seen even in Japan, a hot spring paradise. What is rich in variation is not only scenery. The weather is also very changeable. Dark clouds grow in the blue sky in a minute and bring a storm. The temperature is high during the day, but it largely drops in the night. It fluctuates from that of mid summer to late autumn during a day. When it was getting dark after sunset, a young man appeared on a Harley Davidson with throbbing sound in the nest campsite reserved for riders. The 29-year-old rider named himself Henry. He told me he had made a long trip before. After a half year of the trip he felt homesick a little. I have never experienced that kind of long trip. This trip is now the longest trip in my life, however, it is still only 40 days. I am not sure if a man over fifty, who has lost innocent mind, will feel homesick or not.The weather is fine from the morning in Yellowstone today. It is still ten o'clock, however, I am already sweating. Will a storm come again in the afternoon today, too? After a long time I will spend my time in reading a book all the long today.

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